1911 Beverages de luxe

hills located at the foot of the Appenines, where our attention is attraeted by the artistic manner in which the grapevine is trained, in garlands and festoons from tree to tree, giving the country a picturesque and festive appearançe, we are not sur- prised to find synthesized ail thèse natural beauties, and, 1 should say, the very bounfcifulness of the Aemilian district in the famous Lanibrusco wine, produced near Modena, a red, sparkling wine, of violet-like bouquet, somewhat similar to Neb- biolo, but more tasty and not quite so fruity. In the infinité gamut of wines, which gladden the heart of man, Chianti, this most popular and most représentative of Italian wines, represents a type entirely of its own, well defined and well established. Elegantly, nay coquettishly, gotten up in those familiar, neatly-trimmed flasks, adorned with the national colors of Italy, Chianti is essentially a j oyons and vûvacious wine, the prototype of the red wines of Tuscany, characterized by the brightness and vivacity of their ruby color, the vinosity of their bouquet, the moderateness of their alcoholic strength (just sufficient to move the brain without impairing it), by the cleanliness, smoothness and gentleness of their flavor, ancl, above ail, by that quality Avhich the Tuscans define as "passante viz., easily digestible. Chianti lias not the austerity nor the deep flavor of Barolo or Gattinara, but has many of the soft grâces of the Valpolicella or Valtellina, which alone, among the line table wines of Italy, can, on aristocratie tables, contend with this son of ancient Etruria. Aleatico is a red, Muscadine wine, of Avhich Henderson, the well-known English authority, says that "the naine in sonie measure expresses the rich quality of this wine, which has a brilliant purple color and a luscious aromatic flavor, without being cloying to the palate, as its sweetness is generally tem- pered with an agreeable sharpness and slight astringency. It is, in fact, one of the best spécimens of the dolce jnecanti wines ; and probably approaches more than any other some of the most esteemed wines of the ancients." From Tuscany, whose good wine is, as Bedi says, a Gentle- maii," and u No headache hath he, no headache, I say, for those who talked with him yesterday," we step into the Orvieto dis- trict of Central Italy, famous for its white wines, and for being the home of the historical "Est-Est-Est Wine," which robbed Germany of one of its abbots, the bibulous Johann Fugger. The celebrated wines of Naples corne from the slopes of fiery Mount Vesuvius, where it would seem almost paradoxical that the vine should flourish and yield such excellent products as it does, and from the hillsides of the surrounding country, including the islands of the bay. In this fascinating viridary, eternally fertile, ancient mem-